Cilnea Chronicles
by Korean Boron-Paper Stars
Summary: Not everyone takes caravan work and miasma seriously! When Mikira, May, Keshi, and Levi of Cilnea join the caravan for their own enjoyment and personal reasons, Cilnea and the world will have another problem besides miasma to worry about...
1. Prologue

Cilnea Crystal Chronicles

A/N: This is a remake of Cilnea Crystal Chronicles. I'm satisfied with this start of the story, since I've continued it from another board.

Disclaimer: I don't own FF:CC or anything about it, but I do own my original characters and stuff.

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Prologue 

The night rang with the sounds of laughter. The small town seemed so full of life. The gigantic blue crystal in the middle of the town caught the moonlight and glowed with an ethereal light. Joyful townsfolk danced around the crystal while others cheered and played clapped.

Away from the tiny celebration, a lone selkie stood on the cliffside, far away from the town center, staring up at the stars. He disliked being around large groups of people if he was just a spectator. He wanted action. He didn't want to sit around watching someone else.

The selkie honestly couldn't care less about how his two friends and his sister felt about his brashness. There was nothing for him to do in his little town called Cilnea. He would much rather be out exploring the world and fighting monsters. He could do without the part of the deal which came with a caravan, a chalice, and a duty to receive three drops of myrrh water, the water of life, to purify the town's crystal and keep the miasma at bay for a year. Having responsibilities also wasn't a strong point of his. 

So why exactly was he so famous around town for? The young selkie, who was turning fifteen later that year, was a born comedian. Well, not necessarily a born comedian, but gained a rather carefree and idiotic attitude after an accident which involved him conking his head on a large rock.

He was also known as the strongest fighter in Cilnea and the worst magic user. No one could take down monsters faster than he could. And he was the only one in Cilnea who could defeat anyone or anything with sheer strength alone.

But he was mostly known for being a pyro.

It was no joke. He loved to light anything within reaching distance on fire. His lack of magic abilities usually worried the townsfolk into thinking that one day, he would burn down the town. Rather, he was very skilled with fire and loved handling it, which was quite unusual for a selkie. 

He heard the sound of someone clearing his or her throat and turned around quickly. A male clavat wearing a white cap on his dark brown hair, who wore a slightly irritated look on his face, stood behind the selkie.

"Well, aren't you coming?" the clavat asked in an indifferent tone of voice. "I don't care whether or not you come to the celebration. But thanks to your idiocy, he have myrrh to collect tomorrow. And if I have to do this, then I'm going to make sure we do it right."

"You have such a serious outlook on life!" the selkie said, jumping up and slapping the clavat on the back in a good natured way. "Lighten up a bit! Live a little! We're going out on that caravan to have fun!"

"Fun... As much fun as we can have, especially if we're only going out there to save the town," the clavat muttered to himself.

The selkie scoffed at the clavat's serious attitude and said, "Ah, you suck! See ya! I'm gonna liven up that boring celebration!"

As the selkie made his way down to the village square, the clavat sighed melodramatically, not wanting to know what exactly the selkie was planning on doing to "liven up" the celebration. He sat down on the cliff the selkie was standing on and muttered, "We. Are. Doomed."


	2. Departure

Chapter 1: Departure

May barely suppressed the growl that came from her throat. She couldn't believe it. Today was the day she would go with her town's caravan to gather myrrh for her hometown. Her stupid brother Mikira, with his limitless boundaries of idiocy, had somehow gotten himself stuck on the caravan, along with May and their clavat friends, Keshi and Levi.

_Well, how is it that Mikira got us into this mess, but he's the only one still sleeping?_ May thought to herself irritably as she threw her sleeping bag into the caravan. She glared at her house, which was conveniently located in front of the town's crystal and town square. _Lazy bum._

"May, watch it," Levi said monotonously, glancing over his shoulder to glare at May. "You'll knock over everything in the caravan."

"Shut up, Levi," May grumbled out. She sighed and shook her head. "Hey, Keshi, go get my idiot brother, will you?"

"Aye, captain!" Keshi saluted to May sarcastically and ran to May's house, throwing the door open and rushing in without so much of a warning to Mikira and May's other family members.

"Crazy cousin you have," May commented to Levi slyly.

Levi didn't answer her. He continued to load their luggage into the caravan.

While May and Levi continued to pack their supplies, Keshi had reached Mikira's room, which was on the second floor. Keshi saw Mikira fast asleep in his bed and wondered how the selkie could sleep through the bright sun. That was when he got his answer: Mikira's curtains were still closed! With a mischievous smirk on his face, Keshi threw the curtains open.

When Mikira woke up that late morning, it was to the feel of sunbeams hitting his face. The beams of light felt extraordinarily hot to him. The selkie jumped out of his bed and started running in circles around his room, screaming that his face was on fire.

"Oh, for crying out loud! Mikira, shut up!" Levi shouted from outside.

"It burns! It burns!"

"What burns? What?" Keshi asked, grinning like a madman.

"It's too early for this," May muttered, shaking her head and continuing to throw items into the caravan.

"Aaaahhhhh!" Mikira tripped over Keshi's foot and landed face first on the floor, hard. He stood up, rubbing his check gingerly and said, "Hey! I'm all right! Yippee!"

"Ah! He stepped on my foot!" Keshi howled, grabbing his foot and hopping up and down in pain.

"Ah, ha. Sure." May scoffed and blew at her bangs once she heard Keshi's outburst.

"Shut up, Keshi! You're just as loud as Mikira!" Levi hollered at his older cousin.

"My foot!"

"Okay, Keshi, not funny anymore! Just shut up now!" May shouted at Keshi.

"Yeah! You both know that today is the day of the caravan's departure! We don't have time for this stupidity," Levi stated.

Mikira giggled like a madman and grinned down at May and Levi from his room, his head sticking out of his window. "Silly Levi! There's always time for stupidity!"

Levi tugged at his cap, pulling it over his eyes in embarrassment.

"Well, instead of being stupid, why don't you two come down here and help us out?" May bellowed. "We're tired! And this is all your fault anyway, Mikira! Get your lazy bum down here this instant!"

"Aye, captain!" Mikira saluted in the same sarcastic way Keshi had saluted in, and the two idiots raced outside.

May grinned at Levi once Mikira and Keshi stepped out of the selkies' house and said, "Help from the town's idiots, check!"

Levi just shook his head and watched Mikira and Keshi throw items into the caravan randomly. They were doing more harm than help, in Levi's opinion. But May didn't seem to mind that the natural balance of everything in the caravan was being horribly disrupted. Instead, she had actually joined Mikira and Keshi and was throwing things into the caravan carelessly as well.

This didn't abode well with the young clavat. He glared at his sloppy teammates until Keshi shouted to him, "Come on, stick-in-the-mud! Don't just stand there! Get involved, jerk!"

Levi simply shook his head exasperatedly. Keshi scoffed and continued his game of throwing supplies into the caravan carelessly. But he didn't catch Levi's trademark quote as he turned his back on his cousin.

"We. Are. Doomed."

The annoyed clavat, however, had wisely decided that if he helped his teammates pack their supplies, then they would be able to leave Cilnea faster. So Levi picked up a sack of food and threw it in the caravan, next to the twenty-four jugs of water and ten bottles of milk that were stacked neatly in the back of the caravan.

"Whoa, Levi," May said, raising an eyebrow.

The four caravanners-to-be had soon ceased speaking to each other after only a few minutes together. Mikira and Keshi were talkative, but not good conversationalists. May preferred to talk to only a small group of friends, and Levi rarely talked to anyone. An uncomfortable silence pervaded the atmosphere until the caravanners-to-be had finished packing.

"Well, that's the last of it!" Keshi said joyfully as he threw a neatly folded blanket in the caravan. "Let's get going!"

"Yeah! Can we please go already?" Mikira whined.

"Just one last check," May answered, looking through the supplies.

"This is boring." Levi rolled his eyes.

"Ahem! No talking! Food?"

"Check."

"Extra clothing?"

"Check."

"Paper?"

"Check."

"Journal?"

"Zzzzz . . . Huh? Oh! Checkaroo!"

". . . Weapons?"

"Check."

"Spare weapons?"

"Check again."

"Accessories?"

"Huh?"

"Other defensive equipment, smarty pants."

"Sorry! Check."

"Raw materials?"

"Check."

"Dirty laundry?"

"Che—what?"

"Say what?"

"Ha, ha, just kidding."

"Come on, May! You're the one who said get serious!" Keshi shouted, throwing a striped apple at the female selkie.

May dodged the flying apple without much of a problem. "Ha, ha, ha! Missed! Ha, ha—" Her gloating was cut short as a wet fish smacked her in the face. Peeling the fish off, she shouted, "Hey! That's not cool!"

"Who's laughing now? Ha, ha!" Keshi stuck his tongue out.

While May and Keshi started a food fight, Levi was saddling the papaopamus to the caravan. He looked to the side to see Mikira simply standing behind the caravan, a blank and unfocused look on his face. Levi walked to Mikira and waved his hand in front of the selkie's face. When Mikira didn't move, Levi sighed and shook his head, then mumbled, "What are you doing, Mikira?"

Instead of answering, Mikira simply stared at May and Keshi. A barely audible laugh escaped slipped past his mouth. "Ha, ha, those guys are funny."

The overly serious clavat groaned irritably and stomped away from the paradoxical selkie.

"All set Levi?" May suddenly said to Levi, walking towards him.

"I am now." Levi turned to face May and wrinkled his nose. "You smell like a fish."

"Blame your stupid cousin," May said, holding her own nose. "Well, if you're set, then we're ready to go. Mikira! Get over here!"

"Awww . . . You're no fun!" Mikira whined as he dragged his feet while walking towards Levi and May.

"And you were just standing there in the first place!" May retorted.

The four caravanners took their positions. Levi sat at the back of the caravan to watch for any dangers behind them. Mikira sat at the front of the caravan to direct the papaopamus, being the leader of the caravan—despite all of Cilnea's protests. May and Keshi walked on the side of the caravan.

"Well, looks like we're out of here!" Keshi said as the caravan rolled out of Cilnea.

"Whoopee! Look out, world! We're the caravan from Cilnea and we're going to kick butt!" Mikira shouted.


	3. Road Rage

Chapter 2: Road Rage

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

"Are we there yet?"

". . . No."

"Are we there yet?"

"No! Stop asking me!"

". . . Are we there yet?"

"Mikira! If you don't shut up this instant, I'll hack you into pieces with my sword!" Levi shouted angrily, waving his sword threateningly.

". . . Where are we going again?"

May groaned loudly and answered, "We're going to River Belle Path. It's not too far from here. But no, we're not there yet."

"Why not?"

"Yeah, why not?" Keshi asked, copying Mikira. "Why do we have to drag around this big, stupid, clunky caravan? It'll be so much faster if we could just transport ourselves to each myrrh tree. Zap! River Belle Path. Zap! Mushroom Forest. Zap! Cathuriges Mine. Zap! Home."

"Yeah, well, we don't have anything like that here," Levi snapped back. "So shut up."

"Why don't all three of you shut up?" May retorted, sticking her head out of the caravan. "I'm trying to ready and you guys are making that next to impossible with all your squabbling!"

"Hah! You're reading! Hahaha . . ." Keshi stopped laughing and asked May, "What _are_ you reading anyway?"

"It's a book about a caravan's journey," May answered plainly.

"Wha-at?" Mikira scoffed. "Bo-ring!"

"Probably because you're too stupid to understand it," Levi muttered.

"What did you say?"

"You guys should read more about history," May interrupted before a shouting match could erupt between fire and ice. "Listen to this. 'Once, long ago, the world was a pure and good place. The four tribes that inhabited this land, the clavats, lilties, yukes, and selkies, coexisted in harmony. This time of peace was called the Golden Era.' "

"No miasma?" Keshi repeatedly.

"No squabbles amongst tribes, eh?" Levi asked, raising an eyebrow and crossing his arms.

"Boring!" Mikira declared.

May ignored the boys and continued to read. " 'But the Golden Era was not to last. One fateful day, a meteor came from the sky and hit a distant region of the land. A deadly gas that was later known as the miasma was released from the meteor. It soon spread to every corner of the land. Monsters spawned after the spread of miasma. The inhabitants of the land suffered from the fatal touch of the miasma. The era of peace and prosperity came to an end.' "

"Well, I can't say I didn't see that one coming," Levi said.

"This book has _some_ facts right!" Keshi chirped. "Miasma _does_ exist and monsters exist too! Not sure about the meteor, though . . ."

"It's still stupid," Mikira retorted.

" 'The four tribes soon discovered giant crystals that kept the miasma at bay, and they built towns and cities around these giant crystals. A temporary peace came to the four tribes. But chaos broke out a year after the crystals' discovery: the crystals needed to be replenished with special water called myrrh, the water of life, every year. If the crystals were not replenished, they would lose their glow and the miasma could take hold of the inhabitants once again.' Sound familiar, boys?" May asked her fellow caravanners.

"Why'd you stop reading? Keep reading!" Keshi ordered.

With a triumphant grin on her face, May finished, " 'So the people of the towns and cities sent out brave souls to seek the water of life. These brave souls were called caravanners. Caravanners are sent out every year to this day to search for water. Should they succeed, they achieve eternal success and respect in the minds of their fellow townspeople. Should they fail, the town from which they hailed from will be doomed to the deadly grip of miasma . . .' "

"Wow," Levi muttered.

"That's a load of baloney!" Mikira shouted, waving his arms in the air exasperatedly. "Successful caravanners will receive their town's eternal respect? Bah! Even if we do come back with the stinking myrrh, no one will respect me! Ever! They'll just see me as the idiot who decided to travel with the caravan. And I barely know what half those words mean anyway!"

"I agree!" Keshi declared, pumping a fist in the air. "No one respects me, because they all think I'm busy in my own little world. Well I'm not! I can be just as observant as any normal person! But do they care? No! All they care is that we get the myrrh back home! And a year later, they'll be saying, 'Keshi, who's he? Oh, he's the idiot who was on the caravan last year. Must've been a fluke.' It all stinks, I tell you!"

"Will you two stop being so dramatic?" Levi roared. "You guys are cuckoo!"

"Yeah!" May agreed, throwing her book at Mikira's head. "Since when do you two care about what other people think?"

"Ow!" Mikira said as May's book hit his head. He rubbed his head and threw the book back at May. "I don't! I just felt like being dramatic!"

"Since when did I care about what others thought about me?" Keshi asked. "Hmm . . . Well, since now! Because, well, I'm hungry."

Levi and May narrowed their eyes and sighed. Mikira and Levi would always be dramatic and they would always say the stupidest things. May picked up her book and continued to read. Levi continued to look for monsters that might have wandered out onto the roads. Keshi assumed his rightful position at the caravan's right side as he chomped away on a star carrot. Mikira started walking alongside the caravan's left side as he muttered to himself about how bored he was.

"Hail, caravanners!"

The Cilnea caravanners turned towards the greeting.

Mikira's eyes widened as he screamed, "Aaaahhhh! Talking metal midget monsters!" He scrambled up to the roof of the caravan.

". . ."

"Do you really think you're safe up there?" Keshi teased.

"Well, if I'm up here, they can't get me! So I'm nice and safe!"

","

May coughed. "Please excuse my brother. He is a complete idiot."

"Ah, I see," one of the "metal midget monsters" said. "Are you four the caravan from Cilnea?"

"That we are!" Keshi answered cheerfully.

"Well! You four look quite capable for this job," the speaker said. "Your elder must know how to pick your town's caravanners."

The representative of the caravan that the Cilnea caravanners had run into was one of five lilties. All five lilties were dressed alike in black, shiny armor and black helmets with a feather plume sticking out from the tops. They each carried a long spear. A tiny moogle flew in circles around the speaking lilty's head.

Levi pushed through May and Keshi. "Excuse me for asking, but who would you be?" he asked with a slight tone of rudeness.

"Oh, you don't know? I am Sol Racht. I hail from the city of Alfitaria," Sol Racht answered.

"Hey! I've heard of that!" May said.

"Yeah!" Keshi agreed. "That's the lilty capital!"

"Right you are." Sol Racht chuckled proudly. "It's a pleasure to meet such intelligible young caravanners such as yourselves."

"Well, someone intelligible," Levi muttered to himself, glaring at Mikira.

Mikira caught Levi's glare. The older selkie stuck his tongue out immediately.

Sol Racht seemed oblivious to the two glowering caravanners as he continued to converse with May and Keshi. He said to them, "Our caravan boasts a history that spans back to a long time ago . . . But, let us discuss that another time."

"Sure," May answered with a shrug.

Sol Racht then turned to glance behind him. "Stiltzkin! Do you have a moment?"

A plump moogle that was wearing clothes and talking to one of the other lilty caravanners turned around to face Sol Racht upon hearing its name.

"This is the caravan from Cilnea," Sol Racht continued.

The moogle, Stiltzkin, waddled over to Sol Racht and locked eyes with the caravanners. Mikira, May, Keshi, and Levi felt a shudder riding up their spines.

Sol Racht didn't notice the caravanners' uneasiness around the moogle. He said to them, "This is Stiltzkin. He may not look like much, but he is a skilled traveler. Even we turn to him from time to time for counsel."

The Cilnea caravanners were already terrified of Stiltzkin—they thought that Stiltzkin had a scary stare. They were even more surprised at Sol Racht's appraisal of the plump moogle. However, the moogle didn't cease to surprise them.

"No, I am just a moogle that likes to travel around to places," Stiltzkin said to the caravanners.

"Ah! It spoke! It speaks! Ah!" Mikira and Keshi shrieked simultaneously.

May's jaw dropped when she heard Stiltzkin talk. Levi's eyes widened.

Stiltzkin didn't notice their fears, however. "I just happened to learn a lot of things through my travels. I'm on my way to someplace now, but I could spare some time to teach you a thing or two."

When she realized that they were being spoken to, May stammered out, "O-oh, thank you, b-but . . ."

"No thanks, creepy!" Mikira and Keshi shouted. Mikira was still on the caravan's roof and Keshi had resorted to hiding behind the caravan.

"I highly recommend you accept his offer," Sol Racht suggested.

"Yes, you wouldn't want to miss out," another lilty in the Alfitaria caravan agreed.

"No, we're fine," Keshi answered stubbornly.

"Well, I suppose that they'll be okay," Stiltzkin said to Sol Racht.

The armored lilty nodded to the moogle, then turned to the caravanners once more. "Be careful out there. You wouldn't want to get in over your heads." After a short pause, Sol Racht asked, "Where would you four be headed?"

"Oh, we're going to River Belle Path," May answered. ". . . I'm afraid we might've lost our way a bit. Could you point us out in the direction we should go?"

"Yeah! We've never been outside our stinking city before!" Mikira shouted from his spot on the caravan's roof. He still was convinced that Sol Racht and his caravan were metal midget monsters, and he was terrified of Stiltzkin.

"Get down from there, you idiot!"

"Make me, Levi!" Mikira stuck his tongue out again.

"Grr . . . !"

"To get to River Belle Path, continue to head north until you see a fork in the road. Then, head east," Sol Racht instructed. "You should be there in two days."

"All right then, thanks!" May said. "We should be on our way then. Mikira, get down from there. The caravan can't move with your extra weight."

"Are you calling me fat?"

Mikira and May argued about the issue of Mikira's added weight to the caravan, even as they rolled down the path and away from the Alfitaria caravan. Levi didn't turn back to glance at the Alfitaria caravan. He was much too embarrassed to do so. But Keshi waved cheekily to them until they disappeared from view.

"Sol Racht, do you really think they can handle this?" an Alfitaria caravanner asked Sol Racht once the Cilnea caravan was gone from view.

"No." Sol Racht sighed. "But I suppose we can hope for the best . . ."


	4. River Belle Path

Chapter 4: When Giant Crabs Attack

The giant crab gurgled and lurched towards the four caravanners.

"Here it comes," May said, taking a step away from the crab.

"Hah! Giant crabs don't scare me!" Mikira retorted. He charged at the giant crab, his trusty halberd in hand. "Hey, giant crab! Prepare to become sushi!"

"Stop! You idiot!" Levi hollered.

It was too late for warnings. Mikira was unaware of the fact that the giant crab was casting a thunder spell underneath him. And right when Mikira reached the crab, ready to strike, the crab unleashed the thunder attack, paralyzing Mikira and frying him to a crisp as well. Mikira fell over, twitching.

"Ehehehe . . . Mikira?"

Twitch. Twitch. "Owww . . ." Twitch.

Levi sighed and shook his head, annoyed. He drew his short sword out of its sheath and held his shield up in front of him. The crab turned to him, ready to attack its next victim. Levi faltered a bit, staring into the blank eyes of the giant crab, but managed to keep his position, getting ready to strike when it lumbered towards him.

"Levi! Thunder spell at twelve o' clock!" Keshi suddenly shouted.

"Huh?" Levi looked down to see a small, purple and yellow circle of electricity forming under his feet. "Oh crud—"

The crab released the attack, but Levi, who was much more intelligent than Mikira, managed to roll out of the way into safety. May, who had been sneaking behind the giant crab while it was occupied with Levi, stabbed the crab in the back with her daggers, but was unable to pierce it due to the crab's protective shell. The crab shook May off irritably.

"Here comes Keshi!" The light brown-haired clavat, with his samurai sword in his hand, ran towards the crab, screaming. The crab let out a stream of bubbles towards Keshi, but Keshi tripped over his own feet and fell flat on his face, avoiding the bubbles by pure luck and stupidity.

While May, Keshi, and Levi fought the crab, Mikira picked himself off the ground and rubbed his head, finally able to move after being electrocuted. He stood up shakily and after a few seconds of silence, he said, "Ow."

"Well, now that you're back up, help us out a bit!" May said, running past Mikira, trying to avoid a bolt of thunder that the crab had just sent her way.

"Hey! Where are you going?" Mikira turned to see the bolt of lightning that was now coming towards him. He groaned and said, "Oh, you've got to be kidding—!" He could not continue his sentence due to a very painful collision with the lightning bolt. The selkie was fried to a crisp once again. Mikira fell over ungracefully, twitching spasmodically and shouting, "I hate electricity! Aaaarrrggghhh!"

"Ooh . . . That _had_ to hurt," Keshi, who had glanced at Mikira just in time to see the selkie get electrocuted, muttered under his breath and winced.

Meanwhile, May and Levi were slashing away at the front of the crab, but their attempts proved to be ineffective. Their small weapons were barely making a scratch on the crab. The crab had suffered barely any damage, but May's daggers were starting to lose their sharpness and Levi's sword was starting to display some cracks in the blade.

"We can't keep this up!" May said to Levi as she ducked the giant crab's claw.

Levi raised his sword and slashed at the crab's claw. Upon collision of the claw and the sword, Levi's sword was knocked out of his hands. It skidded over to Keshi, landing in front of his feet.

"This is hopeless!" May added after seeing Levi lose his weapon.

"With that attitude, of course it's hopeless!" Levi retorted, raising his shield to protect himself from the giant crab's claw. "Just keep fighting!"

The crab was busy hammering on Levi and May to remember Keshi's existence. This turned out to be a big mistake as Keshi jumped on the giant crab's back and stabbed it in the back with his sword, similar to what May had done. However, because a samurai sword was much longer than twin ninja daggers, Keshi was able to push the sword into the crab until it reached the crab's soft, inner shell. The crab howled as its shell broke apart and exploded. Keshi was thrown aside by the explosion. He hit the ground, hard.

"Keshi! That was fantastic!" May cheered. She and Levi ran to Keshi to congratulate him and help him up. "I knew you'd make yourself useful!"

"Thanks!" Keshi said, grinning widely. "Oh, and here's your sword back, Levi!" Keshi tossed Levi's short sword to him.

Levi grabbed his sword easily and said, "We're not done yet. The crab's still standing. We need to finish this thing off now."

"I agree indefinitely!"

May, Keshi, and Levi looked up to find the source of the voice. Mikira, who had gotten over his painful meeting with electricity, was furious and ready for battle. He picked up his fallen halberd and, with a war cry, drew the halberd over the crab's claw with such force that the claw exploded just as the shell had done. The crab was left with only its magic to fight and no protective armor of shell to cover it.

"Ha, ha, nice going Mikira!" Keshi cheered, then he fainted, much to the surprise of his teammates.

". . . He probably hit his head when he fell off the crab," Levi said after staring at Keshi blankly for a moment.

"Uh . . . Right!" Mikira agreed, scratching his head, confused. "Um . . . Now, about our friend here, the giant crab . . ."

"Oh, right, that thing," Levi answered, sounding bored.

"This should be easy," May remarked, grinning. "All we have to do is attack the crab's soft inner shell. A few slashes—wham, wham, wham!—and it's done for!"

"Easier said that done," Levi growled, pushing his cap away from his eyes. "Let's just finish this thing off! I'm getting sick of this stupidity."

"Stupidity? Who? What? When? Where? Why?" Mikira asked, glancing around.

Levi shook his head and May sighed.

"Ah, who cares? Get the giant crab!" Mikira hollered, raising his halberd above his head and running towards the crab.

His two conscious teammates grabbed their weapons, held them high, and ran towards the crab. They were able to land several slashes on the crab, which was powerless to defend itself and unable to conjure up any spells to stop the caravanners. In a matter of seconds, the giant crab was considerably weakened.

"Hey! One more slash and it's done!" May shouted joyfully.

However, the crab, in a last effort to save itself, let out a giant cloud of electricity, which shocked Mikira, May, and Levi, making all three of them fall to the ground, twitching in pain.

"O-ow . . ."

"That hurts."

"I hate electricity! This is the third time today!"

The crab started charging up a spell underneath the three paralyzed caravanners, getting ready to finish them off, but before it could, a sword impaled its brain. The crab reared back, collapsed on the ground, and exploded.

Keshi, who was now conscious, walked up to the crab coolly, drew his samurai sword out of the crab's brain, examined it for a second, then recoiled and pretended to vomit while saying, "Ew! Gross!"

Mikira, May, and Levi were no longer paralyzed at this point in time.

"Nice going Keshi! You rock!" Mikira said, pumping a fist in the air. His skin, clothes, and hair were covered with ashes from being struck with lightning three times, and his hair was standing and very stupid looking.

"That was . . . smooth," Levi said casually, brushing ash off his clothes. He removed his cap in an effort to smoothen his hair down; it was standing straight up.

May, whose clothes were also covered with ash and whose hair was also standing up straight, just coughed.

"Well, let's go get that myrrh!" Keshi said in an overly excited voice.

Keshi picked up the chalice, which had been dropped in the center of the battle zone, and the four of them walked over to the myrrh tree, which was planted across the river. The found a small land bridge covered with tiny, crushed rocks that had been pressed together like a conglomerate.

"You do the honors," May said, referring to Keshi. "You defeated the crab."

"Yippee!" Keshi walked over to the myrrh tree and put the chalice down on the pedestal.

The moment Keshi set the chalice down, the myrrh tree started to glow. Strange, aqua-colored bursts of energy danced around the tree. Two leaves of the myrrh tree, which were joined together, and which were directly above the chalice, started forming a drop of myrrh water at its conjunction point. The myrrh sparkled, then fell straight down, hitting the crystal on the top of the chalice. The chalice glowed, then one-third of the chalice was immediately filled with the precious myrrh. The tree ceased glowing once the myrrh water had filled its part of the chalice.

The four caravanners stared at the chalice, unspeaking.

"Well, I'm bushed!" Mikira finally declared, sitting down on the ground.

"I agree," Keshi said. "Time for a nap . . ."

May was about to yell at the two boys for being so lazy, but a cheerful voice interrupted her with a cry of, "Mailmoogle at your service, kupo!"

Mikira, May, Keshi, and Levi turned around to see a cheerful, little moogle carrying some letters in its mouth. It flew to each of the caravanners and gave them a letter, then sat down in the middle of the square the four caravanners had made at their standing points.

Levi opened the seal of his letter and read it silently. It was from his father.

"Dear Levi, how are you doing on your journey? I hope you are still in one piece. Things just haven't been the same without you home. It's actually quiet, with Santana and Lexie minding their own businesses and not each other's. Stay safe out there, son, and come back soon. Your father."

_I wonder if he's saying that I'm the case for all the ruckus at home,_ Levi wondered grumpily. He wrote a simple response of, "I'm fine. Thanks for your concern. Levi." He didn't feel like writing. He gave it to the mailmoogle.

May tore her envelope open and laughed once she saw the letter, then showed it to Mikira. It was from their little sister, Momoko.

"How are you doing, sister? I miss you! It isn't the same without you! Jin, Gin, and Kyung won't let me do anything with them! I wish you and Mikira will come home fast! Momoko."

The female selkie laughed a bit harder before writing her reply of, "Yeah, I miss you too, Momoko. But Mikira and I've just gotten our first drop of myrrh. We'll be home before you know it. May."

Mikira, who had been electrocuted the most out of everyone, was still twitching a bit as he tore his envelope open. His envelope had two letters in it. One was from Yestro, their elder, and one was from his father.

"Mikira, how are you and your caravan doing? I hope you have a safe journey and that you will all return to us safely. Best of luck. Yestro."

The letter from his father read, "Mikira, how are you and May doing on the road? You two better be getting along with Keshi and Levi, you two are going to need all the help you can get. And please, be careful and don't do anything stupid. Your father."

Included in the letter from his father was 100 gil. Mikira took the gil and put it in his shoe, because he hadn't had anywhere else to put it, and wrote a reply to both his father and the elder. To the elder, he wrote, "We just got the myrrh from River Belle Path. Man, was it painful! I got electrocuted three times! It hurt! I don't know where we're going tomorrow. Levi's the only one who knows . . . Mikira."

To his father, he wrote, "Hi, dad! Nice of you to write! May and Levi and Keshi and I are not doing fine! We almost got our butts kicked by the giant crab! But Keshi got behind it and pierced it through its head! Man! That was one cool battle! You want all the details? And don't worry, I'll be careful and I won't do stupid things. Mikira."

Keshi, who was feeling rather cocky about defeating the giant crab, opened his letter and read it carefully. It was from his mother.

"Hello, dear, how are you doing? I hope you and your cousin Levi are getting along well, and I hope you're getting along with those selkies, Mikira and May, too. Listen, I warn you not to go to Goblin Wall. I heard that the goblins have managed to organize themselves into dangerous groups. Stay away from there, or you'll be in trouble when you get home, young man! Your mother."

Sweating and laughing a bit, Keshi scribbled down his reply of, "I'm fine, mom. And don't worry, I'll stay away from Goblin's Wall. And Levi is being a jerk! Oh, I found some seeds in River Belle Path. I'm sending them to you. Love, Keshi." He slipped in a handful of unknown seeds into the letter.

The four caravanners handed their letters to the mailmoogle, who bid them farewell and flew off.

"Let's get back down to the caravan," May suggested/

The others agreed and gathered their things. Mikira picked up the chalice. Levi did a double take, as he wondered whether or not it was safe to let Mikira carry the chalice. After a few seconds of thinking, he decided that Mikira wasn't stupid enough to drop the chalice or do anything similar to that.

On their way down, Mikira asked, "Where to next, guys?"

"Not Goblin's Wall," Keshi answered.

Everyone stared at him.

"Why not?" Levi demanded. "It's the closest to here."

"Because my mommy told me not to go there!" Keshi stuck out his tongue.

Levi, May, and even Mikira looked a bit disturbed. "Your 'mommy'?"

"Yes!"

After a short pause, May said, "O-kay . . . It's best not to disobey the wishes of a mother anyway. Why don't we just go to the Mushroom Forest?"

"And get high off mushrooms? Sounds cool!"

"No, we are _not_ getting high off mushrooms."

The four caravanners bickered all the way down to their caravan.


	5. When Giant Crabs Attack

Chapter 4: When Giant Crabs Attack

The giant crab gurgled and lurched towards the four caravanners.

"Here it comes," May said, taking a step away from the crab.

"Hah! Giant crabs don't scare me!" Mikira retorted. He charged at the giant crab, his trusty halberd in hand. "Hey, giant crab! Prepare to become sushi!"

"Stop! You idiot!" Levi hollered.

It was too late for warnings. Mikira was unaware of the fact that the giant crab was casting a thunder spell underneath him. And right when Mikira reached the crab, ready to strike, the crab unleashed the thunder attack, paralyzing Mikira and frying him to a crisp as well. Mikira fell over, twitching.

"Ehehehe … Mikira?"

Twitch. Twitch. "Owww …" Twitch.

Levi sighed and shook his head, annoyed. He drew his short sword out of its sheath and held his shield up in front of him. The crab turned to him, ready to attack its next victim. Levi faltered a bit, staring into the blank eyes of the giant crab, but managed to keep his position, getting ready to strike when it lumbered towards him.

"Levi! Thunder spell at twelve o' clock!" Keshi suddenly shouted.

"Huh?" Levi looked down to see a small, purple and yellow circle of electricity forming under his feet. "Oh crud—"

The crab released the attack, but Levi, who was much more intelligent than Mikira, managed to roll out of the way into safety. May, who had been sneaking behind the giant crab while it was occupied with Levi, stabbed the crab in the back with her daggers, but was unable to pierce it due to the crab's protective shell. The crab shook May off irritably.

"Here comes Keshi!" The light brown-haired clavat, with his samurai sword in his hand, ran towards the crab, screaming. The crab let out a stream of bubbles towards Keshi, but Keshi tripped over his own feet and fell flat on his face, avoiding the bubbles by pure luck and stupidity.

While May, Keshi, and Levi fought the crab, Mikira picked himself off the ground and rubbed his head, finally able to move after being electrocuted. He stood up shakily and after a few seconds of silence, he said, "Ow."

"Well, now that you're back up, help us out a bit!" May said, running past Mikira, trying to avoid a bolt of thunder that the crab had just sent her way.

"Hey! Where are you going?" Mikira turned to see the bolt of lightning that was now coming towards him. He groaned and said, "Oh, you've got to be kidding—!" He could not continue his sentence due to a very painful collision with the lightning bolt. The selkie was fried to a crisp once again. Mikira fell over ungracefully, twitching spasmodically and shouting, "I hate electricity! Aaaarrrggghhh!"

"Ooh … That _had_ to hurt," Keshi, who had glanced at Mikira just in time to see the selkie get electrocuted, muttered under his breath and winced.

Meanwhile, May and Levi were slashing away at the front of the crab, but their attempts proved to be ineffective. Their small weapons were barely making a scratch on the crab. The crab had suffered barely any damage, but May's daggers were starting to lose their sharpness and Levi's sword was starting to display some cracks in the blade.

"We can't keep this up!" May said to Levi as she ducked the giant crab's claw.

Levi raised his sword and slashed at the crab's claw. Upon collision of the claw and the sword, Levi's sword was knocked out of his hands. It skidded over to Keshi, landing in front of his feet.

"This is hopeless!" May added after seeing Levi lose his weapon.

"With that attitude, of course it's hopeless!" Levi retorted, raising his shield to protect himself from the giant crab's claw. "Just keep fighting!"

The crab was busy hammering on Levi and May to remember Keshi's existence. This turned out to be a big mistake as Keshi jumped on the giant crab's back and stabbed it in the back with his sword, similar to what May had done. However, because a samurai sword was much longer than twin ninja daggers, Keshi was able to push the sword into the crab until it reached the crab's soft, inner shell. The crab howled as its shell broke apart and exploded. Keshi was thrown aside by the explosion. He hit the ground, hard.

"Keshi! That was fantastic!" May cheered. She and Levi ran to Keshi to congratulate him and help him up. "I knew you'd make yourself useful!"

"Thanks!" Keshi said, grinning widely. "Oh, and here's your sword back, Levi!" Keshi tossed Levi's short sword to him.

Levi grabbed his sword easily and said, "We're not done yet. The crab's still standing. We need to finish this thing off now."

"I agree indefinitely!"

May, Keshi, and Levi looked up to find the source of the voice. Mikira, who had gotten over his painful meeting with electricity, was furious and ready for battle. He picked up his fallen halberd and, with a war cry, drew the halberd over the crab's claw with such force that the claw exploded just as the shell had done. The crab was left with only its magic to fight and no protective armor of shell to cover it.

"Ha, ha, nice going Mikira!" Keshi cheered, then he fainted, much to the surprise of his teammates.

"… He probably hit his head when he fell off the crab," Levi said after staring at Keshi blankly for a moment.

"Uh … Right!" Mikira agreed, scratching his head, confused. "Um . . . Now, about our friend here, the giant crab …"

"Oh, right, that thing," Levi answered, sounding bored.

"This should be easy," May remarked, grinning. "All we have to do is attack the crab's soft inner shell. A few slashes—wham, wham, wham!—and it's done for!"

"Easier said that done," Levi growled, pushing his cap away from his eyes. "Let's just finish this thing off! I'm getting sick of this stupidity."

"Stupidity? Who? What? When? Where? Why?" Mikira asked, glancing around.

Levi shook his head and May sighed.

"Ah, who cares? Get the giant crab!" Mikira hollered, raising his halberd above his head and running towards the crab.

His two conscious teammates grabbed their weapons, held them high, and ran towards the crab. They were able to land several slashes on the crab, which was powerless to defend itself and unable to conjure up any spells to stop the caravanners. In a matter of seconds, the giant crab was considerably weakened.

"Hey! One more slash and it's done!" May shouted joyfully.

However, the crab, in a last effort to save itself, let out a giant cloud of electricity, which shocked Mikira, May, and Levi, making all three of them fall to the ground, twitching in pain.

"O-ow …"

"That hurts."

"I hate electricity! This is the third time today!"

The crab started charging up a spell underneath the three paralyzed caravanners, getting ready to finish them off, but before it could, a sword impaled its brain. The crab reared back, collapsed on the ground, and exploded.

Keshi, who was now conscious, walked up to the crab coolly, drew his samurai sword out of the crab's brain, examined it for a second, then recoiled and pretended to vomit while saying, "Ew! Gross!"

Mikira, May, and Levi were no longer paralyzed at this point in time.

"Nice going Keshi! You rock!" Mikira said, pumping a fist in the air. His skin, clothes, and hair were covered with ashes from being struck with lightning three times, and his hair was standing and very stupid looking.

"That was … smooth," Levi said casually, brushing ash off his clothes. He removed his cap in an effort to smoothen his hair down; it was standing straight up.

May, whose clothes were also covered with ash and whose hair was also standing up straight, just coughed.

"Well, let's go get that myrrh!" Keshi said in an overly excited voice.

Keshi picked up the chalice, which had been dropped in the center of the battle zone, and the four of them walked over to the myrrh tree, which was planted across the river. The found a small land bridge covered with tiny, crushed rocks that had been pressed together like a conglomerate.

"You do the honors," May said, referring to Keshi. "You defeated the crab."

"Yippee!" Keshi walked over to the myrrh tree and put the chalice down on the pedestal.

The moment Keshi set the chalice down, the myrrh tree started to glow. Strange, aqua-colored bursts of energy danced around the tree. Two leaves of the myrrh tree, which were joined together, and which were directly above the chalice, started forming a drop of myrrh water at its conjunction point. The myrrh sparkled, then fell straight down, hitting the crystal on the top of the chalice. The chalice glowed, then one-third of the chalice was immediately filled with the precious myrrh. The tree ceased glowing once the myrrh water had filled its part of the chalice.

The four caravanners stared at the chalice, unspeaking.

"Well, I'm bushed!" Mikira finally declared, sitting down on the ground.

"I agree," Keshi said. "Time for a nap …"

May was about to yell at the two boys for being so lazy, but a cheerful voice interrupted her with a cry of, "Mailmoogle at your service, kupo!"

Mikira, May, Keshi, and Levi turned around to see a cheerful, little moogle carrying some letters in its mouth. It flew to each of the caravanners and gave them a letter, then sat down in the middle of the square the four caravanners had made at their standing points.

Levi opened the seal of his letter and read it silently. It was from his father.

"Dear Levi, how are you doing on your journey? I hope you are still in one piece. Things just haven't been the same without you home. It's actually quiet, with Santana and Lexie minding their own businesses and not each other's. Stay safe out there, son, and come back soon. Your father."

_I wonder if he's saying that I'm the case for all the ruckus at home,_ Levi wondered grumpily. He wrote a simple response of, "I'm fine. Thanks for your concern. Levi." He didn't feel like writing. He gave it to the mailmoogle.

May tore her envelope open and laughed once she saw the letter, then showed it to Mikira. It was from their little sister, Momoko.

"How are you doing, sister? I miss you! It isn't the same without you! Jin, Gin, and Kyung won't let me do anything with them! I wish you and Mikira will come home fast! Momoko."

The female selkie laughed a bit harder before writing her reply of, "Yeah, I miss you too, Momoko. But Mikira and I've just gotten our first drop of myrrh. We'll be home before you know it. May."

Mikira, who had been electrocuted the most out of everyone, was still twitching a bit as he tore his envelope open. His envelope had two letters in it. One was from Yestro, their elder, and one was from his father.

"Mikira, how are you and your caravan doing? I hope you have a safe journey and that you will all return to us safely. Best of luck. Yestro."

The letter from his father read, "Mikira, how are you and May doing on the road? You two better be getting along with Keshi and Levi, you two are going to need all the help you can get. And please, be careful and don't do anything stupid. Your father."

Included in the letter from his father was 100 gil. Mikira took the gil and put it in his shoe, because he hadn't had anywhere else to put it, and wrote a reply to both his father and the elder. To the elder, he wrote, "We just got the myrrh from River Belle Path. Man, was it painful! I got electrocuted three times! It hurt! I don't know where we're going tomorrow. Levi's the only one who knows … Mikira."

To his father, he wrote, "Hi, dad! Nice of you to write! May and Levi and Keshi and I are not doing fine! We almost got our butts kicked by the giant crab! But Keshi got behind it and pierced it through its head! Man! That was one cool battle! You want all the details? And don't worry, I'll be careful and I won't do stupid things. Mikira."

Keshi, who was feeling rather cocky about defeating the giant crab, opened his letter and read it carefully. It was from his mother.

"Hello, dear, how are you doing? I hope you and your cousin Levi are getting along well, and I hope you're getting along with those selkies, Mikira and May, too. Listen, I warn you not to go to Goblin Wall. I heard that the goblins have managed to organize themselves into dangerous groups. Stay away from there, or you'll be in trouble when you get home, young man! Your mother."

Sweating and laughing a bit, Keshi scribbled down his reply of, "I'm fine, mom. And don't worry, I'll stay away from Goblin's Wall. And Levi is being a jerk! Oh, I found some seeds in River Belle Path. I'm sending them to you. Love, Keshi." He slipped in a handful of unknown seeds into the letter.

The four caravanners handed their letters to the mailmoogle, who bid them farewell and flew off.

"Let's get back down to the caravan," May suggested/

The others agreed and gathered their things. Mikira picked up the chalice. Levi did a double take, as he wondered whether or not it was safe to let Mikira carry the chalice. After a few seconds of thinking, he decided that Mikira wasn't stupid enough to drop the chalice or do anything similar to that.

On their way down, Mikira asked, "Where to next, guys?"

"Not Goblin's Wall," Keshi answered.

Everyone stared at him.

"Why not?" Levi demanded. "It's the closest to here."

"Because my mommy told me not to go there!" Keshi stuck out his tongue.

Levi, May, and even Mikira looked a bit disturbed. "Your 'mommy'?"

"Yes!"

After a short pause, May said, "O-kay … It's best not to disobey the wishes of a mother anyway. Why don't we just go to the Mushroom Forest?"

"And get high off mushrooms? Sounds cool!"

"No, we are _not_ getting high off mushrooms."

The four caravanners bickered all the way down to their caravan.


	6. The Miasma Stream

Chapter 5: The Miasma Stream

"Are you absolutely sure we're not going here?"

"No! Remember what my mommy said!" 

"Keshi, will you please stop saying the word 'mommy'? It sounds weird!"

"Hey! It's my job to be weird! And you can't have it, Keshi! Nyah!"

Keshi and May glared at Mikira, exasperated at his childish behavior. Levi didn't even look at Mikira. Instead, he looked down at his feet. He couldn't believe that Mikira was the oldest of the four. And their leader, too! Levi just couldn't figure out how a person like Mikira could be real. 

"We're getting off the topic," May said, interrupting Levi's thoughts. "So, I guess we're not going to Goblin's Wall just yet. Any objections."

"No." 

"Not me."

"Hmm... Nah!"

"Then it's settled," May said. "We'll just have to come back here next year." She paused for a few seconds, lost in her thoughts, then said, "By the way... Where are we supposed to go next?" 

"If we continue to follow the trail, then we should reach the miasma stream," Levi answered emotionlessly. "Once we get through that, we'll be at the Iron Mine Downs, where we'll be able to find myrrh trees in the Mushroom Forest and the Mine of Cathuriges."

"And you know all this ... how?" Keshi asked, glaring at his cousin.

"Unlike you, I actually listen when the elder gives speeches," Levi answered calmly, not bothering to be perturbed by his older cousin's jealousy. 

"Th-th-the m-miasma st-st-stream?" May asked, shuddering in fear for a few seconds. "Y-you're joking." 

Levi shook his head. "Afraid not. I don't joke." 

"Ah, come on! What's a little mass of swirling miasma?" Mikira exclaimed enthusiastically, draping his arm around his sister's shoulder. "This is going to be fun!"

"Don't. Touch. Me."

"All right, all right! Touchy, touchy," Mikira grumbled as he withdrew his arm.

"We are so doomed," Keshi complained, narrowing his eyes as he watched Mikira and May argue.

"That's my line," Levi stated unfeelingly.

Keshi was about to retort to Levi's statement, but screamed like a madman when two ninja daggers came flying at him. He ducked and the daggers hit the tree that was behind Keshi. 

"Sorry!" May shouted to Keshi.

"Wh-what was that all about!" Keshi shouted, flailing his arms around angrily.

May pointed at Mikira, who was leaning on the caravan, laughing hysterically. "I missed. He dodged." 

"Trying to kill your own brother?" Levi asked casually.

"Shut up." May glared at him. 

"Whatever." Levi shook his head. "Can we just get going already?"

Mikira and Keshi voiced their agreements enthusiastically. May sighed and retrieved her daggers. Once she threw them in the caravan, Levi slapped the papaopamus to get it moving.

The walk to the miasma stream was tense. No one said a word, not even Mikira. Instead, he was looking up at the sky. No one knew why he found it so fascinating, for people who looked at the sky would become angry because of the miasma that was stretched across the sky, thick like a blanket. But Mikira seemed to have a habit of becoming unnaturally quiet and thoughtful whenever he looked at the sky. But his friends and family thought that it was a nice change from the hyperactive Mikira.

Keshi was staring at his samurai sword blankly. He didn't even seem to be looking at it in particular. His eyes were blank, as if he could see through the sword. This was one of Keshi's bad habits. Sometimes, Keshi would start focusing on something to the degree where his eyes would lose focus of everything. A focused Keshi was something that his friends and family were not used to. They were thankful that it happened only once in a while, but something struck them deeply, whenever they saw Keshi with that blank—almost sorrowful—eyes that seemed to bore right through anything.

May was walking alongside the caravan at a leisurely pace, her eyes on the road. She was determined, and she didn't even care that her hair was falling out of place horribly from the angle she was holding her head. May never cared about things like that. She didn't care if he hair was in place, or if her skirt was wrinkled, or if her shoes were perfectly clean. Unlike most girls, May wanted to fight. Her desire to prove herself was deeper than anyone else's. The only hint of girlishness that May had ever shown was her crush on a Clavat boy named Hisae and her disappointment when he learned that Hisae had a girlfriend. She had wondered if Hisae would like girls who are stronger than he was, but decided that she'd wait until he came to her willingly.

Levi was also walking alongside the caravan, but his eyes were cast downwards at the dusty ground under his feet. His eyes showed no emotion at all. But that was not unusual. Levi never showed any emotion except for slight anger and frustration. But they were only directed at Mikira and Keshi, and they were barely noticeable. Levi seemed to have no real emotions in particular. In fact, he only showed true human emotions to only two people and those people were his girlfriend, Hotaru, and best friend, Han Fei. Aside from a lack of emotion, Levi was not a big talker, making his feelings, interests, and past a mystery to all. Not even his family seemed to know the things that Levi kept locked inside his head. But he liked being an enigma. He didn't want people to know any secrets about him, claiming that there are some things that should only be known to the person it affected most.

Mikira had noticed a slight discrepancy in the pattern of miasma in the sky. It started to get thicker. It became so thick that he couldn't even see the blueness of the sky anymore. He was frustrated. Why was this happening? He tore his gaze away from the sky to look ahead, then gasped in surprise and excitement. "Hey! We're here!"

Keshi, May, and Levi were drawn out of their thoughts and their attentions were drawn to the swirling cloud of miasma. It was a menacing sight. It seemed to be saying, "You will not pass. Go back." A thick swirl of miasma, tinted with a crystal blue color, danced around the land bridge connecting the Peninsula with the Iron Mine Downs. It seemed to stretch on for miles, although it was not even half a mile in reality. A cold chill crept up the caravanners' spines as they spied swords and shields and bones of dead caravanners who had not been able to pass the stream.

"Well, let's go," May said nervously, stepping forward.

"Wait," Levi said, stretching his arm in front of May. He focused on the swirling clouds intently, silently. After a few seconds, he spoke, "Water. We can pass."

"Huh?" Mikira asked stupidly. "These things have elements?"

May, Keshi, and Levi stared at Mikira, their mouths wide open in disbelief.

"Duh." 

"You're impossible."

"Wow! Even I know that!"

Mikira scratched his head sheepishly.

Levi just glared at Mikira, then shook his head. "Whatever. Come on, let's get through this thing already."

May and Keshi took hold of the papaopamus' reins and pulled the reluctant creature towards the stream. Levi took the crystal chalice in his hands, holding it tightly to avoid dropping it. Mikira jogged ahead of the group, making sure to stay within the crystal's range.

"How much farther ahead?" May asked, as she and Keshi continue to yank the papaopamus into the stream.

"Ooh! A little bit more!" Mikira started to pick up pace, but suddenly stumbled and fell on his bottom. "Hey!"

Keshi gave up his place of pulling the papaopamus though the miasma stream and ran to Mikira. Instead of helping him up, though, Keshi tapped the air with his fist. May and Levi stared at Keshi dumbly, but gasped inwardly when they saw ripples extend from the spot that Keshi had tapped.

"What the—" May stammered in surprise.

"Hey! A force field!" Keshi pouted. "How are we going to get through now?"

Levi stepped up with the crystal chalice in his arms. "Everyone stay close to me."

No one argued with him. They huddled around the youngest member of their caravan. Levi walked towards the force field with the others in tow. And to their surprise, the force field started to bend as the crystal fought against the miasma stream's current. And suddenly, it broke. They had gone through the fore field. They were on the other side of the stream.

"What a relief!" Keshi wiped his brow. 

"Last one out's a rotten egg!" Mikira shouted joyfully, running out of the stream.

"Hey, wait up!" Keshi laughed and ran after him.

Levi ran after them to make sure they didn't escape the crystal's range. May sighed and yanked the papaopamus out of the stream as fast as she could, trying to keep up with the boys.

"Whoo-hoo! We're out!" Mikira cheered, dancing around stupidly. "We're out! We're out! We're out!"

"That's nice," May said, looking extremely frazzled by the experience. "Now can we please get going already!"

"All right, all right, let's go," Keshi grumbled.

But the Cilnea caravanners had not gone more than a few paces when they were faced with a fork in the road. One went straight north, but the other went west. And the destination either one of the paths led to were too far to be seen.

"Now what?" May sighed.


	7. The Forest of Narcotic Mushrooms

Chapter 6: The Forest of Narcotic Mushrooms

"We really should have brought a map," May complained, yanking her hair in frustration.

"Where to now?" Keshi asked.

"Yeah? Where to, Levi?" Mikira added, glaring at Levi.

Levi didn't answer the frantic Mikira. Instead, he closed his eyes and thought, _Okay, so we just got out of the miasma stream and now we're stuck at the crossroads. We can go west or north. Where do they lead to?_

"Hey Levi!" May shouted, bringing Levi back to reality. "Wake up! Now, where to?"

Although he was perturbed by the interruption, Levi's face showed no sign of annoyance as he replied, "We go west."

"Huh! Why?" Keshi asked, crossing his arms.

"We're going to need to go north anyway," Levi explained. "We might as well go west now. It's too unreasonable to go north, then back south to go west."

"Uhh … you lost me," Mikira complained, scratching his head. "All I heard was 'go west.' "

"Idiot!" May muttered, smacking her head. "Well, forget about it. Let's just go west."

The other three caravanners agreed to May's statement, except for Mikira who spat out that he was not an idiot. Cilnea's four adventurers directed their caravan west and walked to their unknown destination in silence. However, no one could ignore the glares and funny looks that Mikira continuously gave May for calling him an idiot.

"Okay, you two cut that out!" Levi finally snapped, glaring at Mikira and May. "You two are driving me crazy!"

"We're not doing anything!" Mikira and May shouted at the clavat simultaneously. They went back to glaring at each other almost immediately after the outburst.

"You two are glaring at each other and sucking all the life out of the atmosphere!" Keshi retorted, throwing his sword down on the ground. "Now knock it off!"

"I can glare at whoever I want!" May declared.

"Well, you _can't_ suck up all the life in the atmosphere!" Keshi yelled back. "In case you haven't noticed, there's not enough of it anyway!"

"Shut up, Keshi!" May retorted.

Levi groaned, smacked his forehead, shook his head, and sighed. _Why hadn't I seen this coming? This always happens,_ he thought angrily. _Cilnea is doomed. We are doomed. Oh, who am I kidding? I am doomed._

"Hello, fellow caravanners!"

Levi raised his head to find the greeter. His eyes fell on a caravan of four clavats resting at the side of the roads. They were not dressed like the clavats back at Cilnea. Their clothes were bright yellow. The two men wore sunhats and the two women were bonnets. Levi immediately knew that these clavats were from the Fields of Fum.

"Hello, fellow caravanners," Levi responded, walking to them. He grabbed Mikira's arm and dragged the selkie to the Fum caravanners as well. "How goes your journey?"

"We just obtained our second drop of myrrh," one of the female clavats responded. "We're going back to the Plains of Fum to get our last myrrh drop. How goes your journey?"

"Well …" Levi sighed. "It _was_ going fine."

"Oh, I see," one of the men said. He glanced at May and Keshi, who were still fighting. "Are those two with you and your friend?"

"Oh, yep, they are!" Mikira answered, grinning cheekily. "Oh, yes, they are!"

"It's our first year out," Levi quickly said, observing the quizzical looks of the Fum caravanners. "I'm Levi. This is Mikira. And those two idiots fighting over there are May and Keshi."

"It's nice to meet you, Levi," the other female clavat answered. "You too, Mikira. I'm Lulie. And this is Jake." She motioned to the clavat man who had yet to speak.

"And I'm Sheula," the first woman continued. "And you four must be the caravan from Cilnea, right? We heard that your town was sending out a new caravan this year."

"Yes, indeed," Jake agreed. He then looked up at the sky and added, "Isn't the weather beautiful today?"

"It sure is," the other male clavat agreed. "I hope your journey has a lot of sun. Oh, my name is Andy."

"But crops don't grow without rain," Lulie said serenely.

"Oh, all right then," Andy said. "Then I hope your journey has some rain, too."

"Um … Thank you …?" Levi answered quizzically.

"I. Hate. Rain." Mikira shuddered violently.

The Fum caravanners didn't hear Mikira, and Levi was thankful for that. Levi smacked his selkie companion over the head and whispered, "Quiet, you."

Sheula giggled at the two young caravanners' antics and said to them, "And may you grow strong through your travels. May that be true for both our caravans!"

"Yes, I hope so too," Levi answered, glancing at his two fighting teammates irritably, then thinking about the idiotic Mikira. "Well, we must be going. But it was nice meeting you."

"Same to you, Levi," Jake said, waving to Levi. "You two, Mikira."

Levi dragged Mikira back to their caravan. He looked at May and Keshi and was chagrined to see that they were _still_ fighting. They probably hadn't noticed anything since they started arguing.

"Okay! Enough, you two!" Levi hollered, fed up with his two teammates. "Aren't you two even embarrassed of the spectacle you're creating?"

"No one's going to see us!" Keshi retorted.

"Oh, really?" Levi raised an eyebrow as he thumbed to the Fum caravan, which was parked a short distance away from the Cilnea caravan.

May and Keshi saw the Fum caravan for the first time when they turned to see what Levi was pointing at. They waved awkwardly at the Fum caravanners, who waved back cheerily.

"Oh … Um … Okay …" May turned to Levi, her face red with anger and embarrassment. She whispered to them in a low voice, "Let's get out of here."

Mikira and Levi laughed at May, then the four Cilnea caravanners waved to the Fum caravanners one last time before heading to the Mushroom Forest. The atmosphere around the caravanners wasn't so tense anymore. Mikira, May, and Keshi joked around and Levi listened to their chattering. About half an hour later, they had finally reached the Mushroom Forest.

"Yippee! We're here!" Mikira cheered, pumping a fist in the air.

"Wow, and I wondered why they called it the Mushroom Forest," May said in awe. "This place is … huge."

"Filled with giant mushrooms!" Keshi added.

Levi took his sword and shield out of the caravan. "Let's go. It'll be dark and unsafe to travel in monster-infested areas soon."

Mikira, May, and Keshi agreed and quickly equipped themselves with their weapons. May picked up the chalice. They stepped into the forest quietly.

"Any monsters around here?" May whispered to the boys.

"No."

"Don't see any!"

"Die! Die you pathetic excuse for a monster!"

May, Levi, and Mikira quickly turned to the direction of Keshi's voice. They saw the brown-haired Clavat stabbing a tiny carrion worm with his sword. Keshi stabbed it repeatedly until he was satisfied. When he was finished, he smirked triumphantly, then looked down at the ground quizzically and picked something up.

"What do you have there?" Levi asked in an uninterested voice as he, May, and Mikira approached Keshi.

"I don't know," Keshi answered, examining the tiny aqua orb in his hand. It glowed and crackled with energy. "What _is_ this thing?"

"Magicite," May answered, staring at the orb, obviously mesmerized by the strange object. "It allows us to use magic. The different types of magic we can use with the help of magicite are fire, thunder, blizzard, cure, clear, and life."

"Sweet!" Mikira and Keshi gave each other a high five.

"But," May interrupted, "each orb can produce only one element. And that element is determined by the color of the stone. Red produces fire. Purple produces thunder. Ice blue produces blizzard. Aqua produces cure. White produces clear. And light orange produces life."

"Harsh," Levi muttered.

"Also, magicite can only be used for low level spells," May continued. "If we wanted to use a holy spell or a gravity spell or even an advanced level of the spells I just stated, then we have to fuse magicite together. It sucks very much, in reality. I mean, here we have the chance to use magic without actually learning it. But it's only a one-time use, until you find another magicite, and you can't even use the higher level spells without more magicite."

"That's _not_ sweet," Mikira whined.

Keshi looked at May with a blank stare, then turned his attention back to the magicite he was holding. "If it's not thunder magicite, then I'm not interested." He tossed the orb over his should carelessly.

"I'll take that." May caught the orb effortlessly and examined it. "A cure magicite. Neat!"

Levi groaned. "If you guys are finished already, can we _please_ get going?"

"Keep your sword in its sheath," May retorted when she saw Levi's fingers itching for his sword. "We're done."

"Finally!" Levi mumbled, glancing upwards to glare at the umbrella of mushrooms. "Now let's get moving."

May rolled her eyes and pocketed the cure magicite. Keshi and Mikira followed the other two as they continued to make their way through the Mushroom Forest. But they had not gone too far when they reached a dead end guarded by two gremlins, a monster plant, and another carrion worm. There was another slab of land littered with mushrooms a distance away from the dead end slab of land. A giant mushroom grew in the gap between the two chunks of land.

"Looks like it's time to fight again," Keshi said, drawing his sword and shield.

"You're going down!" Mikira shouted as he charged towards one of the gremlins, his halberd in hand.

"Should we stop him?" May asked Levi, recalling what happened during their fight with the giant crab when Mikira stupidly charged at the monster.

"No, it can't hurt him," Levi answered, watching Mikira in amusement. "It's just a little gremlin."

The gremlin that Mikira had been charging at ducked to avoid Mikira's halberd. The monster swung the bulb on its head at Mikira. The selkie laughed and chopped the bulb off the gremlin's head with his blade. The gremlin shrieked and grasped its head. Mikira drew his halberd back and smacked the gremlin in the stomach with the flat side of his halberd, sending it toppling off the ledge, into the gap.

The carrion worm crawled towards Mikira, who jumped back once he saw it, unprepared for it to attack. Keshi let out a war cry and ran towards the worm. He stabbed the worm directly in the middle and hacked it into tiny pieces. Keshi cackled like a madman and cut the pieces up into even smaller pieces.

"What is it with Keshi and carrion worms?" May demanded of Levi, disturbed at Keshi's madness.

"How should I know?" an equally disturbed Levi questioned.

May was about to retort back to the clavat, but stopped when Levi stepped in front of her, his shield raised to cover his front side. A fireball bounced off the shield and sprang away.

"Argh!" Mikira shrieked, ducking. The fireball whizzed past his head, almost hitting him. The selkie glared at his teammate and sister. "Hey! Are you trying to kill me?"

"Maybe. It depends," May muttered to herself under her breath.

"We're not done yet," Levi said calmly. He pointed at the plant monster behind May. "You fight that thing. I'll get the gremlin."

"With pleasure!" May leaped into action. She charged at the plant and drew out her daggers. The plant spat out another fireball at her, but May leaped into the air gracefully. She was now above the plant monster, reading to strike. The unfortunate monster, being an immobile plant, was cut to ribbons. "Don't mess with me!" May declared, sneering at the dead monster scornfully.

Levi had already dispatched of the gremlin and was standing over its body. He stared at his three assumingly war-hungry teammates.

Keshi, who had finished hacking the worm, wiped sweat off his forehead and said, "Well, now that that's over with, why don't we—aahhh!"

Mikira, May, and Levi immediately turned their heads to face Keshi. They saw that Keshi had stepped on the mushroom in the gap and the mushroom had flung him into the air. The clavat fell on the other side of the gap, miraculously on his feet.

"Hey! When'd you get over there?" Mikira asked stupidly.

Keshi did not answer. He had fallen over from shock.

"Well, I guess that's our cue to do the same," May remarked to the two boys, who were staring at Keshi in exasperation. "Onto the mushroom we go!" May, chalice in hand, stepped on the bouncy mushroom and it flung her into the air. "Look out below!"

The clavat known as Keshi had snapped out of his shock when he saw that May was about to land on top of him. "Aaarrgghhh!" he howled and quickly scrambled out of the way.

"Let's do this, Levi!" Mikira shouted jovially as he dragged his stoic teammate onto the mushroom. The mushroom launched the last two Cilnea caravanners into the air and onto the other ledge.

"That was fun!" May said, laughing joyfully.

"I'd say!" Mikira agreed, punching the air.

Levi and Keshi simply glared at the two selkies. "Speak for yourselves."

"Fine, fine," May said, pouting. She then stood straight and said, "So where to now?"

"Well, the only way around seems to be down," Keshi said matter-of-factly. "Shall we go?"

Glare. "Shut. Up."

The four caravanners continued their way down, May and Keshi glaring at each other every other second. Mikira now had the chalice and was running ahead of the others to scout for monsters.

"If he runs any faster, then we'll all be running to keep up with him," Levi muttered under his breath. "Slow down, stupid!" he shouted to Mikira.

Mikira did slow down, but not because of Levi's order. A hedgehog pie and a one-eyed flying monster called an ahriman were blocking the caravanner's path.

Keshi drew his sword and assumed a fighter's stance. "Oh, great, a flying thing! This is going to be hard!"

"Tell me about it," May agreed, pulling her daggers out.

"I'll get the fire-breather!" Mikira yelled, referring to the hedgehog pie. "You guys can take care of the flying creepy thing!"

He didn't even give the others a chance to protest. He had already charged at the hedgehog pie and had beaten it to death.

"Hey, now that the hedgehog pie's dead, help us out with this ahriman!" Levi shouted as he raised his shield to avoid getting clipped by the ahriman's wing.

"Okay!" Mikira raised his halberd above his head and slashed at the ahriman, only to have it fly away from him. "Hey! Get back here!"

"Forget it! It's not going to listen to you!" May sighed as she watched her brother growl and shake a fist at the monster. She jumped into the air and landed on the ahriman's back. She stabbed it in the neck with her two daggers. The monster howled and crashed to the ground. May took her daggers back and jumped off. "Now, guys!"

Keshi slashed at the ahriman with his sword, only to get knocked back with the ahriman's wings. Levi, who had been learning blizzard magic from a magic expert in Cilnea, tried to charge a blizzard spell, but was hit with a gust of wind from the ahriman's wings.

"How can this thing still be fighting? I stabbed it in the neck!" May complained. She couldn't get close to the monster as it was creating a strong wind to keep the caravanners at bay.

Suddenly, the monster burst into flames. It shrieked as it burnt to death and was reduced to a smoldering pile of ashes within seconds. The three adventurers looked behind the ahriman to see Mikira standing in all his glory, his left hand burning with the remnants of his fire spell.


	8. Fire Blazed Mikira

Chapter 7: Fire Blazed Mikira

Mikira grinned at the burning orb of fire in his hand, then at the pile of ashes that had once been the ahriman. His halberd now lay on the ground, forgotten, and his right hand swept up to cup the orb of fire.

"Nice going," May said to Mikira, temporarily snapping him out of his trance.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, thanks!" Mikira turned his attention back to the fireball in his hands.

"Yeah, but put that away!" Keshi retorted, eyeing the ball of fire in Mikira's hands wearily. "You're going to hurt someone!"

"Awww …! Fine!" Mikira scoffed and dispersed the fire spell in an instant. The caravanners, who had been glowing in the light of the flame, shivered as the mushrooms once again engulfed the forest in darkness. Mikira didn't notice this, however. He just crossed his arms and said, "There, happy?"

"No."

The four caravanners ceased speaking as they continued to make their way around the Mushroom Forest. Within ten minutes, they had found and defeated many monsters, collected a thunder magicite and two blizzard magicite, and found a moogle wandering around the forest. They had chased the critter around for five minutes before finally giving up the chase.

"I'm … so … tired …" Keshi complained, gasping between words. "Where … is th-that … little … bugger?"

"Who … cares?" Levi retorted. He took a deep breath and regained control of his breathing. "We've wasted enough time."

May glanced around their surroundings. She sighed. "I don't know where we are. And it's getting dark."

"Now what?" Keshi asked.

Levi had been glancing at Mikira while May and Keshi debated about their situation. The wheels had been turning in his head. He knew that the pyromaniac would tick whenever anyone mentioned something about fire. Mushrooms were inflammable. And it was starting to become dark. Of course, there would be monsters out at night, and a bonfire would most certainly grab their attention. But still, fighting monsters would be much better than being stuck in the dark Mushroom Forest overnight, where they would most likely be ambushed by monsters anyway. So …

"Mikira," Levi said seriously.

"Eh?" Mikira cocked his head to the side.

"Get fired up."

May and Keshi ceased their squabbling and stared at Levi in surprise, their mouths agape.

"Levi …" Keshi said with a seriousness in his voice that had never been heard before.

"Did you just say …" May also trailed off her sentence, too surprised at her usually serious teammate to continue.

"Get fired up, eh?" Mikira smirked and dropped his halberd. His legs were stretched apart wide, his knees bent, and his arms outstretched widely. Two orbs of fire started glowing in his palms. "Ehehehehe …"

"M-Mikira!" May shouted.

"Levi, are you out of your mind?" Keshi screamed at his cousin.

"Fire!"

The two fireballs were aimed at a tall mushroom with an orange cap. The mushroom burned when the fire struck it, and tipped over and fell on the spotted red and white mushroom next to it. The second mushroom burst into flames as well and collapsed. The mushroom next to that caught on fire, and the one next to that, and the next one, and the next one. A chain reaction of burning mushrooms had been started as soon as the first mushroom had caught on fire. In only a few seconds, all the mushrooms within sight had been reduced to smoldering piles of ashes. The Mushroom Forest was no longer the Mushroom Forest. Every mushroom within sight had been torched, and the mushrooms that had been hidden behind those mushrooms were also reduced to ashes. Mikira closed his eyes and straightened his posture and smiled at the destruction he had caused.

"Oh … my … goodness …" May gasped.

"Well, I guess it's not the _Mushroom_ Forest anymore," Keshi muttered, sighing.

"Ah! That felt good!" Mikira put his hands behind his head and grinned.

"Levi! Are you out of your mind? You know what Mikira does when you mention stuff like that around him!" May ranted, waving her arms frantically. "Are you trying to kill all of us? Ahh! I hate you, Levi!"

Levi just smirked and crossed his arms. "Well, we're not lost anymore, right?"

May stopped ranting at Levi and glanced to the side. Sure enough, she could see the path that she and the boys had been following, along with a moogle house in the distance, isolated on a slab of land that the fire had not touched.

"Moogle house! Let's go!" Keshi sang, skipping to the house joyfully. "Let's go, people!"

Mikira followed the joyful clavat, screaming, "Wait up!"

May just glared at Levi again and growled in a low, soft, and dangerous voice, "I _hate_ you."

"I know."

After leering at each other for one full minute, May and Levi made their way to the moogle house, where Mikira and Keshi were already resting. The moogle was a kindly critter that had enjoyed the chase with Cilnea's caravanners. It asked them to stay for the night, as it was too dangerous to go outside when it was dark. The caravanners couldn't agree.

"All right! Looks like we've got a place to crash for the night!" Mikira cheered.

"What a relief," May said. "I wouldn't want to fight any monsters in this dark!"

Keshi just grinned like an idiot and Levi sighed and said, "Oh, all right!"

"Enjoy your stay, kupo!" the moogle said cheerfully. "Tomorrow will be safer for travel, kupo!"

The four caravanners agreed with the moogle and decided that they should eat dinner then. They took out their provisions and started eating. However, it was not long before chaos broke out.

"Ew! This fish tastes nasty!" Keshi grimaced and made a face.

"Fish is always nasty. Besides, you should know better than to put your food with your other supplies," Levi said, raising an eyebrow.

Keshi raised his. "What are you talking about, Levi? This fish tastes raw. Hey, Mikira, can you give me a hand here?"

"Sure!" Mikira turned to the moogle's empty fireplace and shouted, "Fire!" The fireplace lit up. "There you go, Keshi!"

"Thanks!" Keshi grinned.

May and Keshi strung some fish on a pile of sticks next to the moogle's fireplace and roasted them. The moogle's house was soon filled with the aroma of roasting and burning fish.

"Ah! The fish are burning!" May shouted, pulling the sticks of roasting fish away from the fireplace.

"I don't think it's that bad." Keshi took one of the sticks and took a bite out of the fish on it. "Mmm. Crunchy!"

Mikira took a bite out of his. "Needs some fruit or milk. Too dry."

May also took a bite out of hers. "Mmm. Fish sticks."

Levi, who didn't like fish, just ignored his teammates and ate some cherry clusters and gourd potatoes.

"Bleach!" Mikira complained, sticking his tongue out. "Way too dry! Pass me a carrot!"

After eating dinner, the four caravanners went to sleep for the night. All was quiet whilst they slept, except for when Keshi woke up in the middle of the night, screaming about lutes and gourd potatoes and miasma. Everyone else was so disturbed, they didn't bother to ask. But other than that, the caravanners had a restful sleep during the night.

"Ah! What a beautiful morning!" Keshi crowed, stretching his arms. "I'm ready to kick some butt!"

Levi yawned and rubbed his eyes. "Let's get this over with."

"I'm so fired up!" May exclaimed, forgetting about how Mikira would react upon hearing that sentence.

"Zzzz …" Mikira was fast asleep!

Exactly one hour later, Mikira woke up and got ready for the day. The caravanners bid the moogle farewell and stepped out of the moogle house, the chalice in tow.

"Wow … This place still looks horrible," May observed, surveying the damage that Mikira had done.

"The mushrooms will grow back in an year or so," Levi answered coolly. His expression then grew pensive. "But … One thing has been bugging me."

"What?" Mikira asked suspiciously.

"That fire last night should've smoked out monsters here," Levi said. "But there're no traces of any monster activity. So, what's with that?"

"Uhh … Guys …"

Keshi's voice held a tinge of disgust. Mikira, May, and Levi turned to look at what he was looking at and saw dead monsters littered around the forest. Their bodies were burnt to a crisp.

Mikira laughed nervously, scratching the back of his head. "Eh, heh, heh. Oops."

"So that's why!" Levi said to himself.

"Hey, Mikira, you missed one," May commented, pointing down at the ground. "See?"

The boys crowded around her. A tiny green plant monster with many squirming legs, many eyes, and a long tongue was writhing on the ground.

"Is that …?" Levi had a dumbfounded look on his face.

"What a sorry excuse of a monster!" May scoffed and kicked the plant monster away.

"May! That wasn't nice!" Keshi yelled.

"Yeah! You should've made it into a salad!" Mikira agreed as he and Keshi burst out into hysterical chuckles.

"And making it into a salad is nice?" May asked, crossing her arms.

"Yeah! Nice for everyone else!" The two boys laughed again.

Levi gave Mikira and Keshi a peculiar look. "Let's just get the myrrh and get out of here! I'm sick of this place."

"Us too."

Cilnea's four caravanners followed the beaten path that they had been following since they entered the Mushroom Forest. They were able to walk with ease, as everything around them was dead. A few more minutes of walking had taken them to the end of the trail and the myrrh tree.

"Finally. We're here." May took a step forward, then looked down at the ground. "You again?"

The plant monster that she had kicked away was now rooted in front of the myrrh tree. The caravanners were about to go around it, but stopped in their tracks when the plant monster suddenly exploded.

"What the—"

Web the smoke cleared away, the caravanners found themselves staring at the plant monster … which was now super sized to ten times its previous size.

"The Malboro," Levi breathed out.

"Eh? It's ugly!"

"Gross!" Mikira grimaced.

"This thing is going to be hard to beat," Keshi whined.

"Not really," May retorted, a cocky smile on her face. "You see … It may be huge, and gross, but it's still a plant."

"Yeah, so what?" Keshi asked.

Levi, however, was smirking with the same mischievous smirk that May was wearing. "And we have an idiot pyromaniac in our group."

"Oh, I get it!" Keshi exclaimed, now grinning as well.

Mikira looked confused.

"Mikira," May, Keshi, and Levi said.

"Yeah?"

"Fired up!"

A wide grin broke out on Mikira's face. He started charging up two orbs of fire in his hands. "Fire!" He laughed maniacally as he let the fireballs fly at the Malboro.

The Malboro shrieked as it caught on fire. It flailed its tentacles around madly in an attempt to put the flames out and to squash the caravanners. As a result, Mikira, May, Keshi, and Levi found themselves performing a crazy dance to avoid being hit.

May ducked a flying tentacle and looked up just in time to see Mikira landing in front of her from a jump in the air. He had his back to May and his arms were outstretched for balance. He didn't see the tentacle that May had dodged coming towards him. May screamed, "Mikira! Look out!"

"Huh?" Mikira glanced behind him, but it was too late. The tentacle smacked him across the back with a great force and sent him flying. Mikira made a head-on collision with a nearby mushroom.

"Oy, stupid, are you okay?" Levi asked.

"The pain …"

"I guess it's up to us, then," Keshi said, charging a lightning spell in his hand. "Hey, ugly! Take this! Thunder!"

The bolt of lightning hit the Malboro directly. Already burning from Mikira's fire spell, the Malboro shrieked as Keshi's bolt intensified the burning.

"Ha, ha! Brilliant, Keshi!" May cheered, laughing.

"Thanks! Your turn!"

May nodded and drew her daggers. She jumped in the air and threw the dagger in her right hand at the Malboro, slicing one of its tentacles off in the process. The Malboro shrieked in pain and anger. May switched her other dagger to her left hand, and threw it too. It landed in the Malboro's mouth.

"Well, that's going to hurt in the morning," Levi joked coolly.

Keshi laughed at Levi's joke, but stopped when he saw the Malboro tilt its head backwards. He turned to May and said, "Uh … May? What's it doing?"

May looked at the Malboro and gasped. "It's getting ready to use its poison attack! Get down, everybody!"

The three conscious caravanners threw themselves to the ground and held their breath. The Malboro exhaled a cloud of poisonous fumes at the Cilnea adventurers. The assault with poison was over in a few seconds, though, and the caravanners had never been more relieved in their lives.

"I thought I was going to die!" Keshi grumbled.

"No more playing around," May said. "We have to beat this thing now!"

"I think that it will burn to a crisp before we have to fight it again," Levi pointed out.

Sure enough, the Malboro couldn't put out the fire. It was still flailing its tentacles around, but the fire continued to burn.

"Just beat it, Levi, we need to get the myrrh," May said when she realized that Levi wasn't going to make a move to attack the Malboro.

"Oh, all right!" Levi drew his blade and leaped onto the Malboro's head. The plant monster tried to knock the clavat off its head, but to no avail; its tentacles could not reach Levi. The clavat lifted his left hand and closed his eyes, muttering, "Blizzard." His left hand fell on top of his right hand to grasp the hilt of his sword. The blade glowed with a light blue energy and crackled with power. The atmosphere around Levi grew cold.

"Brr!" Keshi shivered.

"He can fuse magic spells with his sword …?" May mused to herself out loud.

Levi jumped into the air and brought his sword down on the Malboro when he came back down to earth. He sliced the plant in half from its head to the ground it was rooted to. The monster screamed one more time as it melted away, leaving behind a green gooey substance on the ground where it once was.

"That wasn't hard at all!" Keshi said happily.

"Thanks to Mikira, our crazy firebug," May added. She paused to think, then continued, "And speaking of Mikira, someone get him."

"I'll get him," Levi grumbled.

The dark-haired clavat meandered over to the selkie and would've picked him up had Mikira not abruptly sat up and said, "Hello!" at that moment.

Levi stared at Mikira stupidly, then shouted at him, "You were okay this entire time! You jerk! You made me do the hard part of the job!"

"Ha, ha!" Mikira blew a raspberry at Levi.

The infuriated clavat would've punched the annoying selkie had Keshi not shouted at them, "Come on, you two! Let's get the myrrh already!"

May was standing in front of the stone pedestal of the myrrh tree, the chalice in her arms. She had an annoyed look on her face.

The two troublemakers hurried over to Keshi and May and stood behind them. May put the chalice down on the pedestal, and the tree started glowing with myrrh again. A drop of the water of life fell on the caravanners' crystal, filling the chalice with more myrrh.

"One more drop!" May declared, taking the chalice back.

"Yay! We're almost done!" Keshi celebrated.

"Whoopee!" Mikira pumped his fist into the air. "So, where to now?"

"Well, we should—"

"Mailmoogle at your service, kupo!"

The four caravanners turned to look at the creature that had interrupted Levi's sentence. They found a mailmoogle standing behind them, carrying some letters in its mouth. It waddled over to the four caravanners and handed them each a letter. This time, everyone had only one letter.

"Eh? What's this?" May asked, looking at the names of the receiver and the sender on her envelope. "Who's Zikah? And who's Hayley?"

"Oh, sorry kupo!" the mailmoogle exclaimed. It waddled over to May and took the letter back. "This is your letter," it said, handing May a different letter.

Keshi tore his envelope open and read the letter inside. It was from his sister, Bridget.

" 'Hello, Keshi, how are you doing? I hope you're not doing anything stupid, because I don't need anyone blaming me for your stupidity. Oh, there's something else I have to tell you. When I was your age and on the caravan, when I went to the Mine of Cathuriges, we faced the orc king. It was truly a hard battle for us. But we did eventually beat him. And I'll tell you how. Just split up the team. Have one person distract the thing while the other three bash away at it. Or, if you want to be really safe, you can have two people distract it. Well, best of luck. You'll need it. Bridget.' "

Keshi groaned a little after he finished reading the letter from his sister. He picked up a pen and wrote, " 'Aw … Thanks a lot for ruining the surprise of the battle for me. I was hoping to find out myself! And I'm not doing anything stupid! Keshi.' "

Levi opened his envelope carefully and peered at the letter. It was from his little sister, Lexie.

" 'Levi, how are you doing, brother? I hope you're having a safe journey! I sent some medicine with this letter. You're too careless. Best of luck! Lexie.' "

Levi growled and turned red. He was _not_ careless! Everyone in Cilnea knew that out of Mikira, May, Keshi, and himself, he was the least careless out of them all! With an angry growl, Levi wrote a terse reply of, " 'I am not careless. Mind your own business.' "

Mikira quickly opened his envelope and glanced at the contents of the letter. It was a response from his father to Mikira's previous response.

" 'No, Mikira, I do _not_ think I want to know the details. And you and your team were almost defeated by the giant crab? Sounds like things are going downhill already. Hopefully you'll receive this letter and respond. That means nothing's happened to you. Yet. You, May, Keshi, and Levi stay safe. Your father.' "

Mikira laughed after he finished reading the letter and wrote down a response of, " 'Aw! You worry too much, dad! We're fine! And we only have one more drop to go! See you soon! Mikira.' "

May carefully tore her envelope open and read her letter. It was from her mother.

" 'Hello, dear, how are you and your brother doing on your journey? I hope you two are getting along. I know you two don't get along well at home, but the caravan is the worst place for arguments. Anyway, I made you this to help keep you safe on your journey. I hope you like it. Your mother.' "

May turned the envelope upside down and shook it. A patch of blue silk fell out of the envelope. May grabbed for it, and she knew what it was immediately. It was blue misanga, an accessory that protected the wearer from poison. With a foolish grin on her face that could rival Mikira's, May wrote to her mother, " 'Thanks, mom! A blue misanga! I love it! Don't worry, I won't fight with Mikira. He's hasn't been acting as stupid as he does at home during the journey. See you soon! May.' "

The mailmoogle collected the four caravanners' responses and flew away with them, calling to them, "See you later, kupo!"

Keshi and May waved to the mailmoogle until it was out of sight. Mikira just grinned like an idiot. Levi looked annoyed, as usual. He was starting to wonder if his family was against him.

Once he stopped waving at the mailmoogle, Keshi turned to his cousin and said, "So … You were saying?"

"Hm? Oh, yeah," Levi said, snapping out of his thoughts. "As I was saying, before that puffball interrupted me, we should take a break at Marr's Pass. Then, we can continue to the Mine of Cathuriges."

"Then let's get out of here!" Keshi exclaimed. "I'm getting sick of this place!"

Mikira, Levi, and May agreed with him and the four caravanners started their trip back to their caravan.

"Oh, shoot!"

May, Keshi, and Levi turned to face Mikira, whose eyes were open wide, due to an unknown emotion.

"What? Something wrong?" Keshi asked.

"Yeah … I didn't get a chance to get high off mushrooms!"

Levi and May sighed, then shouted at Mikira, "Is that it, stupid?"

"… Yeah."


End file.
